Content warning: This article contains mentions of death and suicide.

The true power and heart of musicals lies in their ability to make all audiences feel seen, heard and understood. Through an array of mediums, songs and characters, musicals provide communities with representation unlike any other art form. The Musical Theatre Repertory opened their production of the heart-wrenching and powerful LGBTQIA+-led musical “Fun Home,” written by Lisa Kron and scored by Jeanine Tesori, at the Massman Theatre Thursday, Oct. 20.

“Fun Home” is an adaptation of cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,” which recounts Bechdel’s complex life and discovery of her sexuality as a lesbian. Bechdel also struggles with a tumultuous relationship with her father, Bruce Bechdel, who hides his own sexuality as a gay man, while running their family funeral home. Ultimately, her journey becomes throttled as her father takes his own life just as Bechdel blooms into her own.

“Fun Home” director Sarah Showich, a senior majoring in theater, pitched the show to MTR after having read it for the first time in class during their sophomore year.

“We see Alison come into her queerness in this really beautiful way, and it [is] exciting, and especially in her medium years, or her college years, getting to experience so much queer joy and new discoveries,” Showich said. “Whilst also seeing with Bruce what happens when queerness is repressed and seeing what happens when you can’t live authentically and how that slowly eats away at you.”

Bechdel’s life is displayed through three key stages of her life: Small Alison of around eight years old in the Bechdel funeral home, Medium Alison attending Oberlin College, and Big Alison in her 40s as she remembers herself as these other versions.

The sold-out audience watched as Big Alison tried to make an understanding of her experiences growing up by drawing and captioning cartoons of her life. Big Alison remained sitting at her desk sketching upstage while her memories came to life before her and the audience, in fragments of time.

Hope Craig, a freshman majoring in theater, plays Alison’s brother Christian Bechdel and voiced her admiration of this fragmentation.

“I just love how it’s told from the three different perspectives,” Craig said. “I think that’s incredible and I love analyzing how they intertwine and why it’s written the way it is. Why the jumps are made between Small Allison and then it’s all of a sudden back to Medium Alison, that’s fascinating.”

The set design articulated much of Alison’s desires and experiences. Above Big Alison’s desk was a square panel where her drawings would be projected above her, corresponding with the memories of Small Alison and Medium Alison playing out before her. The lighting flashes in distinct blues and oranges, enhancing the emotional intensity of individual characters’ moods throughout the story.

Transforming the story even further are the earnest, hard-hitting songs that the Bechdel family sings, including “Days and Days,” performed by Alison’s mother, Medium Alison’s “Changing My Major” and “Come to the Fun Home,” an upbeat cast favorite performed by the Bechdel children. One of the most potent and emotional songs is “Telephone Wire,” performed by Big Alison and her father Bruce as they share their last moment and drive together.

Ethan Clayton, a senior majoring in theater, found this song to be one of his personal favorites, as it is the only moment Bruce interacts with Big Alison. The character Bruce is the root of a lot of the problems that arise in “Fun Home” and in Alison’s acceptance of herself. However, Clayton emphasized that his approach to the character was to perform without demonizing him, but instead seeing him through his own truth.

“He’s a tough character because he is abusive and has done all these awful things when he was alive, but I empathize with him in a way that we’re so lucky nowadays to have access to mental healthcare, especially [for] queer people,” Clayton said. “There are resources available, and for someone back in the ’70s, ’80s, that just wasn’t really a thing. So, Fun Home is a testament to [how] his story could have ended differently. It didn’t have to be that tragic. We’re glad we’re in a different space today.”

Showich particularly emphasized how Fun Home is a source of representation for the LGBTQIA+ community.

“My own queer experience is probably most represented by this piece versus any other one,” Showich said. “We’ve talked a lot about gender with this show and how it examine[s] struggling with gender expression as a young child … I am non-binary and see a lot of young me not having the vocabulary for that yet, but experiencing gender dysphoria and all those things, but also the queer joy.”

“Fun Home” is a story filled with emotion and intensity that transcends time and space, and stands as a beacon of social change that is necessary for the LGBTQIA+ community.

“We are in a time where queerness is under attack across the country, and we’re seeing an unprecedented amount of anti-trans legislation across the country. And also in musical theater specifically as a medium. It’s so gendered and there’s a lot of transphobia,” Showich said. “So I think this show is so important because it celebrates the right things and also shows us how important it is to continue to celebrate those things.”